ananyo writes: "Bioengineers have made an artificial jellyfish using silicone and muscle cells from a rat’s heart. The synthetic creature, dubbed a medusoid, looks like a flower with eight petals. When placed in an electric field, it pulses and swims exactly like its living counterpart.The team now plans to build a medusoid using human heart cells. The researchers have filed a patent to use their design, or something similar, as a platform for testing drugs (abstract). “You’ve got a heart drug?” says Kit Parker, a biophysicist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who led the work. “You let me put it on my jellyfish, and I’ll tell you if it can improve the pumping.” (+must see video)."